Pat Harrison

I get numerous questions about technique and there are thousands of little areas we can improve when shooting IPSC. But how do you know where to start, or what will be most beneficial to your scores?
Start by looking at what you do most often, and then look at where the biggest gains can be made. In a match, let’s say there are 10 stages, 200 rounds, just to keep round numbers.  2 speed shoots, 4 medium courses and 4 field courses. You are going to draw 10 times, some of those will likely be table draws (let’s say two), so out of the holster 8 times.  If you are shooting production, SS or Limited 10, you will have to reload between 15 and 20 times depending on lay out, perhaps more. You will shoot 100 splits on target (assuming no steel) and transition at least 70 times (removing reloads and movement), and move over 30 times. That’s including movement if you had to draw from a start position and move into a box. In at least one case at our past provincials there was a speed shoot with 4 targets that requires three movements before shooting, from the start to the gun, gun to mag, mag to shooting position.
Now let’s look at those numbers to see where you need to work.
Accuracy:  First off, if there are 200 rounds to shoot, they all need to find the A zone so accuracy should be at the top of the list. If you are taking too long to fire, firing lots of makeup shots or just plain dropping points your score will suffer from lack of points and slow times.
Splits. You will have 100 of these so good splits are important. HOWEVER! If on close to medium targets you are shooting 75% of the splits of a GM, this goes to the bottom of the list. If a GM is pulling .15 splits on a close target (5m to 7m) and you are pulling .20's there is some gains to be made, but as we soon will see it pales in comparison to other gains you can make, Over the course of 100 splits, at .05 is 5 seconds. GM to GM that’s huge, but if you are A or lower, not as important as other areas.
Transitions. Here is where we start to see a big difference. Typically on close targets a GM might be .20 target to target (I know I have seen and done faster too, but for the sake of argument) while an A or below tend to be a lot more, but let’s say it's a .10 difference (.30 instead of .20) multiplied by 70 transitions that is 7 seconds. If you are shooting transitions .40 between targets, that becomes 14 seconds. A half a second transition? 21 seconds!! That’s huge, and it only gets worse as the targets get farther away.
Movement. A good friend of mine, who is a B class shooter, is .40 slower than me position to position. Over 30 movements in this imaginary match and you are looking at 12 seconds. If a single field course has 5 positions, that's 2 seconds alone. Here's a drill you can try at the range. Start with the gun loaded and pointed at a target with a good sight picture in the A. Use a timer and on the beep fire the shot. Typically you should be around .21. Now bring the gun down to a low ready and on the beep, fire an A....how long did it take? That is the difference between entering the box with the gun up and ready to shoot as opposed to having it down as you enter the box...I'll bet there's a half a second difference, at least, that's 2.5 seconds on a field course and 15 seconds in the match. That is not even taking into account how you left the previous position or how efficiently you moved...that's just having the gun ready!
Reloads. This come up more in Production, SS, and Limited 10, but even shooting Open you should put the same weight on reload practice. You reload almost every time you move and the movement eats some of the time out of the reload. You only really lose if you don't have the magazine in before you get to the next position and the gun is not up (see above) That being said, you reload almost as much as you move, so a half a second difference in reload really costs time, 10 seconds in the match. Work on them!
Draws. You only do 10, so a half second here is worth 5 seconds. It's important, but far outweighed by other factors. Dry fire the crap out of it at home, then check it at the range.

In the big picture you want to work on everything, it all costs time. If you add up the differences listed here you see how much every little thing affects you. A grand total here would be 49 seconds MORE than a GM in the match. And given that the gm probably shot it in about 80 to 90 seconds you end up at 64%
Put yourself on a timer through some drills that test your movement, splits, transitions, draw and reloads. Track your numbers and ask a GM what his are. You will quickly see where your biggest improvements will be found